Monkey Swordsman (BTD YHGTBKM)
The Monky Swordsman is a new tower that makes its debut in Bloons Tower Defense: You Have Got To Be Kidding Me. Of course, he is a quick, short ranged damage dealer. About Attacks within a 0/0/0 tack shooter range with a rapid 1 layer pop, 5 pierce slash attack every 44 frames in a 120 degree cone. Cannot pop frozen or lead and cannot detect camo. Pretty straightforward really. Cost: $500 Description: The monkey swordsman excels in quickly slicing through up to 5 bloons at close range. Appearance: The monkey swordsman has the appearance of a dart monkey wearing short sleeved white robes along with a white belt wrap and a brown sword sheath on his left side. He wields one-handed straight sword that has a black handle, a silver pommel, and silver blade. Strategy: He should be treated similarly to some cross between a tack shooter and a ninja due to his accuracy in hitting bloons, fast attack rate, and short range. As such, players will want to place him close to the track and possibly near corners or loops unless they wish to advance down the middle upgrade path. Ideally, this tower would be used for quick suppression though each upgrade path does have bursts of power in some form or fashion. Another important thing to keep in mind is that each path focuses on removing a weakness that the tower has. The first path works well at creating chokepoints and letting the tower slice through all bloon types, the second path grants the tower a much larger range and a secondary attack, and the third path will increase the tower’s consistent damage and allow it to pop camo bloons. So mix and match as necessary. Upgrades Path 1 (Chokepoints and burst damage) Tier 1 Weighted Swing: Every fourth sword swing (the main attack) has double the usual popping power. Cost: $200 Description: Every fourth sword swing is a heavy swing with double the usual popping power. Appearance: The robes have a dark blue trim to them. Meanwhile, the pommel and cross guard of the sword are now gold. Strategy: While this path 1 upgrade isn't as reliable as the other tier 1 upgrades, it does effectively make this tower 25% stronger, synergizes well with path 3, and can turn an encounter around if this monkey is starting to be overwhelmed. Additionally, slowing towers such as glue gunners make this upgrade much more consistent in getting its maximum popping power so consider getting some if you want this upgrade. Tier 2 Absurdly Sharp Sword: All attacks can now pop frozen and metal bloons. Cost: $500 Description: A razor thin edge can pop through frozen and metal bloons. Appearance: The monkey swordsman now wears dark blue sword gloves. Additionally, the blade has a light blue tint to it. With 2/2/0, razor winds have a yellow tint to them. Strategy: Not much has changed from the previous iteration of the monkey swordsman except for the fact that it can now pop frozen and metal bloons, two bloons that it could not pop prior to this upgrade. Really, it is a utility upgrade that makes the tower more versatile as with all of this tower’s tier 2 upgrades. It should be mentioned that when combined with path 3, it can pop camo bloons making no bloons immune to its attacks. And when combined with path 2, it can be a decent mid-range lead and frozen popper. Finally, the ability to pop frozen bloons adds a synergy between Weighted Swing and ice towers where the latter stalls bloons while the former picks them off. Tier 3 Electric Baton: The sword is replaced with an electrical baton that dazes non-MOAB bloons for 1 second slowing them by 33% and permanently makes bloons ‘prone’ so that they take +1 damage from all future swordsman monkey attacks until the afflicted bloon is popped completely. BADs are immune to being prone and the effects do not stack. With 3/1/0, Skewer stuns the target bloon for 3 seconds. Cost: $1400 Description: Replaces the sword with a stun baton that briefly dazes bloons and makes them lose 1 extra layer from future swordsman attacks. Appearance: The monkey is now wearing a skin tight full body uniform that has a grey belt instead of a sword sheath, a dark blue banana symbol across the chest. Additionally. The monkey wears a dark blue cape and domino mask. His weapon is also now a smooth black stun baton instead with a dark blue handle and glowing yellow tip instead of a sword. Finally, prone bloons will have a spark above them when they first receive their status. With 3/1/0, the belt is black, with 3/2/0, the monkey wears a dark blue hood and has a black domino mask instead, with 3/0/1, the baton handle is dark red, and with 3/0/2, the monkey is wearing a grey body armor vest. Strategy: This is where the Monkey Swordsman become more effective in dealing with stronger bloons due to essentially being able to pop 2 layers every hit after the first, in creating choke points due to its ability to slow bloons down and hit them more, and in working with other monkey swordsmen. Basically, it is a good upgrade for holding off stronger bloons. The effectiveness of this chokepoint is somewhat hampered by the tower’s small range, however, 3/2/0 alleviates this problem and should possibly be considered if you want to slow bloons longer. 3/1/0 is also no slouch as Skewer can now stun lock a single bloon if needed. Additionally, path 3 helps this tower by adding more consistent popping power thus allowing it to slow more bloons down and by providing camo detection. Tier 4 Master Vigilante: Every fourth attack (the same one with the doubled popping power) is an electrical cape swish that stuns bloons instead of dazing them. Additionally, bloons are popped 3 layers and stunned or dazed for 2 seconds by the normal attacks. Cost: $3200 Description: Every fourth attack is a cape swish that stuns bloons instead of dazing them. Additionally, the main attack afflictions affect bloons for twice as long and this tower pops 3 layers of bloon. Appearance: The cape and gloves both have yellow trims on the ends of them. Furthermore, the banana symbol is yellow, and the monkey now wears blue boots with yellow trims on them. Every 4th attack, the monkey grabs his cape with his left hand and swishes it instead of swinging his baton. During this time, the yellow trims of the cape glow with electricity. However, he will still follow up with the baton stab with 4/1/0. Strategy: This tower is much like the last one except its stalling capabilities are much stronger and it very easily deals 4 layers of damage to afflicted bloons, even MOABs. In fact, when combined with path 2, at least one bloon is guaranteed to be stun locked though with path 3 more bloons will be stalled. It is worth noting that bloon rushes can still make it past this tower relatively unscathed so use this tower to set up other attacks or use it for stronger bloons rather than rushes. Tier 5 Stun Lock: When any bloon, including a MOAB class bloon or a camo bloon, completes 90% of the track, they are stunned for 10 seconds and all of your ability cooldowns reset. This can only happen once every 60 seconds and does not reset. BADs are immune to being stunned but still trigger the effect. Cost: $40000 Description: When a bloon gets too close to the exit, the bloon is stunned for an extended period of time and all of your abilities cooldowns are reset. There is a delay between stun locks. Appearance: The monkey swordsman’s clothing is now more armored, more bulky, and dark grey. Furthermore, the gloves and boots are both white with yellow trims, he wears a black domino mask, he wears a white cape and hood with yellow trims, and he never wears extra body armor even with 5/0/2. Strategy: This ability, does not really synergize with other paths but it does work well with other towers. It is rather straightforward in that is encourages players to use their abilities by offering a safety net in the event that a bloon gets too close to the exit as well as giving you one last change to barrage the bloons with your abilities while the stun buys you enough time to activate them. So naturally, this upgrade should be used if you are a player that loves to use abilities. Furthermore, you should keep in mind that while the ability has camo detection, the tower itself will not have it without 5/0/2. Path 2 (Range) Tier 1 Skewer: 1 frame after slashing bloons, the monkey swordsman will follow up by stabbing 1 layer of 1 bloon. It can later be upgraded to stun bloons, be replaced by additional slashes, or pop 2 layers of bloon. Cost: $250 Description: The Monkey swordsman now follows each sword slash by stabbing 1 additional bloon. Skewer is later upgraded to stun bloons, be replaced by additional sword slashes, or pop 2 layers of bloon. Appearance: The sword sheath is now black instead of brown. Strategy: This upgrade is probably the worst out of the three tier 1 upgrades by itself only increasing the tower’s effectiveness by 20%, but if you are planning to advance the tower to any tier 3 upgrade, then it can become well worth the early sacrifice whether by stun locking bloons, becoming more slash attacks, or dealing multiple layer damage which path 3 is relatively weak at otherwise doing. It is also worth noting that this upgrade might be preferable to others in certain circumstances as well due to being a second attack such as in early rounds against blue or green bloons so that should be considered as well. Tier 2 Wind Cutter: All attacks now release a forward travelling razor wind gust with a size equal to the attack width. As a result, the range is now that of a 0/0/0 dart monkey. Cost: $400 Description: All attacks release a forward travelling razor wind thereby increasing the tower’s attack range. Appearance: The white robes now come with a white hood that the monkey swordsman is wearing. Whenever the sword monkey attacks, it creates a clear white half-moon razor wind slice in the air with a size based on the attack width. Strategy: This upgrade might possibly be the main attraction of this upgrade path since one of the tower’s major problems is that fast or strong bloons can escape it easily and that tower placement can be tricky. Especially on certain maps. Well the good news is that with this upgrade, you don’t have to worry about either of those problems. Additionally, this tower can continue to damage bloons for a longer time. So in essence, this upgrade is great for bolstering tower damage and alleviating placement problems. Tier 3 Flash Step: The slash attack now briefly teleports the monkey swordsman to the target just long enough to attack the target and this attack is repeated three times with 1 frame intervals instead of being followed by Skewer. All before returning to the original tower position. Additionally, the tower can attack over a 0/0/2 dart monkey radius. Cost: $1100 Description: The monkey swordsman now quick steps towards targets to slash them, does so three times in a row instead of skewering them, and does so over an even larger area before returning to its original position. Appearance: The robes are now blade instead of white and are long sleeved. Additionally, there are two black sword sheaths on the monkey’s back, a there is a duplicate of the sword in the monkey’s hand stabbed into the ground with a black cloth wrapped around it to indicate the monkey’s original position that it returns to after each attack cycle, and there is a symbol on the monkey’s hood that is three white rings pieced together like a triangle. Additionally, when the monkey attacks, it leave a white ‘blink star’ behind it and travels at twice the speed of a beekeeper bee. With cross pathing, the changes remain largely the same but have darker shades of their colors than they would otherwise have. Strategy: In addition to drastically improving range, especially since the monkey swordsman’s focus point changes with each attack, it effective triples its popping power except for the 1 pierce skewer that is removed. It is probably the least specialized of the tier 3 upgrades and is technically outclassed by path 3 tier 3 in terms of raw popping power, but it is the most versatile of the three upgrades. As such, it works well with a variety of strategies though keep in mind that 0/3/2 has more popping power than 2/3/0 if you consider this upgrade. Tier 4 Monkey Assassin: Adds “Single Stroke” ability which makes this monkey attack a target dealing damage equal to 25% of their current hp rounded up based on the maximum possible damage. “Single Stroke” can deal up to 1000 damage. Note that “Single Stroke” can pop all bloon types including frozen, metal, and camo. Cost: $4500 Description: Single Stroke - attacks a target removing 25% of its current health up 1000 damage and attack based on maximizing damage. Appearance: The monkey assassin is now wearing a half-face mask up to his nose and the white rings on the hood are now grey. While the ability is active, the ‘blink star’ briefly appears and a single line can be seen piercing the target bloon. Strategy: The monkey swordsman is otherwise weak to MOAB class bloons so consider this upgrade a much needed saving grace. Unfortunately, it is much more situational than the MOAB Assassin capable of delivering much less damage than the MOAB Assassin’s 750. Luckily however, this upgrade performs better in the late game due to the increase in the four bloons that this upgrade will do more damage to; the ZOMG, the BAD, and their fortified variants. Suffice to say, this makes for a decent long term alternative. Tier 5 Monkey Legend: Replaces “Single Stroke” with “Double Stroke” and adds “Projected Assault”. “Double Stroke” has the same properties of “Single Stroke” but attacks twice in a row. “Projected Assault” makes the tower attack with flash step attacking clones every frame for ten seconds. Clones disappear immediately after unleashing a single slash. Cost: $32000 Description: Double Stroke strikes twice and adds Projected Assault - Rapidly attacks with flash step projections that disappear after ending a slash for 10 seconds. Appearance: The robes and sword handle are now a dark green, the rings symbol is once again white, and the blade of both swords is white. Additionally, the monkey is now wearing a full white face mask with red marking on it and glowing yellow eyes. During the second ability, projections are solid yellow silhouettes though the exact shades vary. Finally, the sword in the ground now has a green piece of cloth around it instead of a black piece. Strategy: Aside from the first ability being able to essentially act twice in a row each time its activated, the tower is now given a means of rapidly attacking bloons and essentially holding them off while the ability is active due to its decent popping power and very very fast attack speed. Furthermore, it is no slouch against MOAB class bloons either as the damage will easily rack up to 600 over the course of the ability and each attack has 5 pierce so it can hit multiple MOABs if needed. Finally, in terms of cross-pathing, 0/5/2 is by far the better choice due to the consistent increase in popping power though 2/5/0 is decent. Path 3 (Direct consistent damage) Tier 1 Sturdier Blade: Increases the popping power of each sword swing to 7. Cost: $200 Description: A sturdier blade increases the popping power of each swing by 2. Appearance: The handle or grip on the sword blade is now red instead of black. Strategy: This is the most boring of the three upgrade paths but it is likely the most practical as it increases the tower’s effectiveness by a whopping 40% in most situations and synergizes spectacularly with the other upgrade paths. Essentially, it allows for consistent power and reduces the probability of being overrun by bloons. A staple for more powerful upgrades. Tier 2 Keen Sense: Allows the monkey swordsman to see and attack camo bloons. Cost: $300 Description: Attuned senses allows the monkey swordsman to attack camo bloons with all attacks. Appearance: The monkey swordsman is now wearing a dark red chest plate and shoulder plate armor. With 0/2/2, razor winds have an orange tint to them. Strategy: Much like 2/0/0, this is an upgrade that doesn’t really alter the strategy of the tower. It simply allows it to attack an extra type of bloon thereby making it much more versatile against those bloon types. One notable trait is that 2/0/2 swordsman can attack all bloon types including DDTs without MIB influence. But otherwise, it’s just a general utility upgrade. Tier 3 Samurai Swordsman: The monkey swordsman attacks every 22 frames and each attack has 12 popping power. With 0/1/3, Skewer pops 2 layers of bloon. Cost: $1500 Description: A special samurai technique lets this monkey attack twice as fast and pop up to 12 bloons per attack. Appearance: The monkey now dons a full suit of samurai armor with grey robes underneath including a helmet, chest plate, shoulder plates, wrist plates, gauntlets, knee plates, ankle plates, and boots. The plates of are still dark red but with silver trims and the horns on the helmet are silver. With 1/0/3, the trims are now light blue, with 2/0/3, the sword blade is still tinted light blue and the gauntlets are slightly larger, with 0/1/3, the sheath is still changed to black, and with 0/2/3, the horns on the helmet are black. Strategy: Once again, this path is the most practical against bloon rushes. Between the increase in popping power and attack speed, it can now halt 17 more bloons than it could have before. And as an additional bonus, the increase in attack speed means that certain affects like 1/0/0 or 0/1/0 are triggered twice as often. For the best results, pair this with a 3/x/x tower and watch it pierce through 2 layers of each ‘prone’ bloon with each attack. Simply put, it is an all-purpose powerhouse. Just watch out for stronger bloons. 0/1/3 helps against this, but it wont stop them completely or stop more than one. Tier 4 Clean Sweep: Each slash has 30 popping power and covers a 240 degree cone. Cost: $2200 Description: Each slash attack pops up to thirty bloons over an even larger cone. Ouch. Appearance: The horns on the helmet are now gold tipped. Additionally, there is a black dragon symbol on the chest plate. Strategy: This is essentially everything that the previous upgrade is except moreso. Place it down, and watch your problems disappear. However, like before, there are other towers and strategies you will want to use it with. For instance, you may want to place it on a curve due to the increased sweep cone so that less bloons are likely to evade. And like before, slowing towers work well in conjunction with this one. Especially 3/x/x. In terms of attack power, synergizing with path 1 will be best though it may be viable as a piercing tower at the end of each lane when combined as 0/2/4. Tier 5 Sol Blade: Every 10 seconds, creates a special 10 popping power slash independent of the normal attack that pops all bloon types, attacks in a 360 degree radius, and makes all bloons it hits release 100 popping power shockwaves with a 3/0/0 bomb tower AOE that also pop all bloon types. This attack is not affected by other upgrades however and it will only unleash said attack if bloons are the special attack’s range. Cost: $21000 Description: Forged by an avatar of the sun, the sol blade can charge up and unleash a powerful strike that releases shockwaves from all bloons that it hits. Appearance: The armor is now orange, the weaving underneath silver, and the horns gold. The blade itself is red with a black sun symbol in the center of it and the dragon symbol on the chest plate has been replaced with the same sun symbol. When the attack is active, the blade is wreathed in orange and leases an orange trail behind as the attack is carried out. Strategy: Although it takes 10 seconds, the new attack is an excellent crowd clearer due to the massive popping power from the shockwaves and the fact that bloons will likely be hit multiple times. However, the attack is best used when the tower is being nearly overrun. Therefore, this tower is best placed near the beginning of the map. Ideally, it would also be on turns or bends because the special attack is unaffected by normal upgrades and therefore will not improve with the range upgrade in path 2. Luckily however, the new attack can pop all bloon types making this tower great with path 2 crosspathing if you still want to consistently pop lead bloons while keeping a longer range. However, path 1 is still recommended to prevent premature special sweeps. And finally, beware MOAB class bloons as while they are hurt by the effects of the attack, other towers deal with them much more efficiently. Monkey Knowledge (Magic) 1# Sharpened Edge: Sword Sweeps have +1 popping power. Requirements: None. Unlocks: Cheaper Samurai. 2# Cheaper Samurai: Samurai Swordsman costs $250 less than normal. Requirements: Sharpened Edge, 4 points in magic knowledge. Unlocks: Long Step. 3# Long Step: Flash Step increases range by 5% more. Requirements: Cheaper Samurai, 4 points in magic knowledge. Unlocks: None. 4# Total Lockdown: Stun Lock has a 50 second cooldown instead of a 60 second cooldown. Requirements: Long Step, 8 points in magic knowledge. Unlocks: None. Trivia * All three paths have some upgrade that lets it pop all bloon types. However, all three of them have some cooldown and the middle path upgrade that does this is an activated ability. * This tower has much in common with a ninja including several color schemes such as white, black, and red. * According to the creator's headcannon, he's a really nice guy and trains with both the ninja and dart monkey. Category:Towers Category:Monkey Towers Category:Melee Towers Category:Magic Towers